CSCIS explainer: Destruction of enemy aircraft is a great achievement for Ukrainian defenders

According to the media and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, on January 14, a Russian A-50 aircraft was destroyed over the Sea of Azov and an Il-22M11 was damaged.

Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security (CSCIS) said this in a post on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"A-50 is a Russian early warning and control aircraft, which the enemy uses to control the attacks of its strike aircraft and detects Ukrainian aircraft in the sky. This is currently the second loss or damage to the A-50. Prior to that, a similar aircraft was disabled by Belarusian partisans at the Machulishchy airbase in February last year," the Center said.

It added that the A-50 is a very complex and specific matériel. The enemy is not able to compensate for its loss: there are only up to 20 such aircraft in Russia's arsenal, CSCIS said.

"An Il-22M11 aircraft is a protected air command post that acted together with the A-50 during Russian air attacks against Ukraine. This is Russia's second Il-22M loss during the war. The first such aircraft was shot down by fighters of the Wagner PMC during Prigozhin's mutiny last summer," the post said.

According to CSCIS, the destruction and disabling of these aircraft are a great achievement of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which will make it easier for Ukraine to counter Russian aggression in the air.